Monitoring for Asian carp to increase in Illinois

Federal and Illinois officials are releasing plans to monitor and control Asian carp in Illinois waterways this year.

The Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee outlined a $6.5 million plan on Thursday that includes expanding efforts to remove the invasive fish from the Upper Illinois River below a set of electrical barriers meant to keep them from reaching Lake Michigan.

Biologists will continue intensive sampling of waterways that connect the lake with the Mississippi River watershed to determine if any carp have breached those barriers, but will cut back on DNA sampling. Such sampling will be conducted twice above the barriers.

And the presence of Asian carp DNA no longer will trigger an immediate response. Past actions have included injecting poison into the waterways or "electrofishing," though no carp were found.